Home -The Basics -Why Grow? -How to grow-The Book - Seed - Juicer -The kit- Molds - Contact us

Got a green thumb?

The following blue list is the information that I began with and is enough to get started. It's not much and I learned a lot more by trial and error. The Book also covers this basic growing territory in detail. I will keep adding to this page to hopefully make it make it your most valuable resource for learning to successfully home grow your own superfood.

The entire growing process from soak to harvest is ideal at 65 to 70 degrees f. with good ventilation.

Colder than 65 will slow the growth but not harm the crop. Even a light freeze will not hurt winter wheat.

At 70 and above, molds tend to advance more rapidly.

1. Soak the seed for 6 to 12 hours

2. Invert the container to strain and sprout for 12 to 24 hours

3. Spread the soil 1/2 to 1" deep on a tray

4. Sprinkle the seed on the soil so it almost covers the soil 1 seed layer deep

5. Water till moistened but not soggy

6. Cover and place in darkness for 2 to 3 days till sprouts are about 1" tall

7. Uncover and move to light

8. Keep moist and ventilated near 70 degrees till grass is 6 to 9 inches tall

9. Harvest by cutting near soil with scissors or knife and put into wheatgrass juicer

Total time spent...... about 30 minutes to produce 12llounces. (12 ounces is a successful 14"x18" tray and yields will vary from crop to crop.)lTThat's over $21l worth of wheatgrass juice. (on a 14"x18" tray)

Cost: $0.75 Seed
$0.50 Soil
Total $1.25 for 6 days of "double shots" of wheatgrass juice!
Compare to $1.75 per ounce from the juice bar.

1. Soak the seed for 6 to 12 hours
Start with about a cup of seed to grow a couple square feet of grass.

(From the "Mold Page")

After obtaining good seed, thorough seed washing, AFTER soaking, is critical. Because the method of washing can make a difference, I will go into great detail on the method and reasoning that I use.

Since mold loves to grow on broken open or small bits of damaged wheat, molds that would result from these can be prevented proportionately to the degree which they are removed from the batch. The directions here are for a 5 gallon bucket. You can adjust the routine to whatever amount you are rinsing.

Most seed will have bug eggs waiting to happen. They hatch when the grain is getting old. This is why fresh stock is important. To store for long periods of time, refrigerate, freeze, inject nitrogen or CO2. Oxygen, light, moisture and warmth are all conducive to bugs

(You might use a quart canning jar or equivalent holding a cup of seed for a single home batch.)

1. Fill the bucket 1/4 full of wheat

2. Add water to almost to top

3. Agitate the grain to wash and suspend the grain in the water

4. Stop agitating. As the seed begins to settle to the bottom, quickly pour off the water. Much of the dead seed and small bits will sink slower and be poured off. Do not use a straining lid or screen . A screen will catch the larger broken pieces that you want to get rid of. There may be some loss of good grain by pouring as it settles but it is a minimal and worthwhile sacrifice.

5. Repeat the rinse-pour cycle 4 or even 5 times and until the water is pouring off very clear.

6. Fill the bucket again and leave to soak for 6-12 hours.

Invert the container to strain and sprout for 12 to 24 hours
The container that you use to drain and sprout in will need a lid that has some holes punched for the water to drain out. For a small amount, a quart canning jar with the center of the lid removed works well. Put a piece of plastic screen, nylon hosiery over the top and screw on the lid ring. A plastic yogurt container with holes punched will work. (I prefer using a container that bright light will not penetrate or else set the container to drain-sprout in a dark location. I read a study on wheat growth that indicated that light on the seed during germination causes a shorter blade to develop.)

Invert the container in a dish drain rack or equivalent and leave 1 to 24 hours to begin sprouting. (I have sometimes planted immediately after soaking, completely omitting the sprouting stage. Plenty of flexibility here.)

I usually soak in the morning, drain that night and plant at any time the following day.

The tiny white root will just be showing at the ends of the grain at planting time.
(back to top of page)

Spread the soil 1/2 to 1" deep on a tray
Trays can be just about anything that is flat and has a lip 1/2" deep or better. Cafeteria trays, old plant flats from the nursery (the kind with small holes-not the big cutouts), pie pans, hard waxed paper plates, cookie sheets and so on. We use 14x18 fiberglass cafeteria trays with a hole drilled in the center and one at each corner for drainage.

Drainage holes or no drainage holes? I have grown both ways and either way has it's advantages:

-Drain holes allow for good aeration to the roots and usually will result in a more solid root mass making the flat more easily handled if removed from the tray. Drain holes prevent water logging and minimize the monitoring needed to keep a proper moisture level. BUT drain holes also mean that watering might need to be a little more frequent and the grow shelf will need to have a tray to catch the water that drips below or be placed where drips don't matter.

-No drainage means no dripping below and less frequent watering. It also allows for a type of watering that helps prevent mold on the seed. After the root mass has developed, the flat of grass can be grabbed by the hair, lifted up off the tray, water poured into the tray and the flat replaced. This keeps the top of the seed dry for mold prevention and is practical for small operations. BUT no drainage means that too much water can accumulate in the tray if the moisture level is not checked before watering. Moist, but not soggy is the rule. Pour off any excess water.

It is good to use soil that is slightly moist, not bone dry. This will make the water at planting time percolate through the soil evenly.

Pour out the soil onto the tray and spread evenly. Break up any clumps.
(back to top of page)

Sprinkle the seed on the soil
I use a light plastic 2 cup tupperware container to shake out the seed, holding it about a foot above the tray and shaking to evenly cover the soil.

The goal is to end up with the soil being covered with seed, wall to wall, but without having the seed layered up on top of each other much. Too much seed (grass) prevents good air flow and tends to mold more. Too little seed, and the yields will be low.

Leftover sprouted seed is a potent food and should not be wasted.

Water till moistened but not soggy
If the soil is dry at planting time, the water is not going to percolate (soak) throughout the dirt with one watering. Dry dirt in patches or at the bottom of the tray is going to thwart the grass at the most crucial stage of growth. Birth.

If it is dry, give it a good watering before spreading the seed. This watering should puddle some on a dry soil. It may look very wet but if you dig a little you will probably find dry dirt under the puddles. During the time it takes to spread seed, the water should have percolated through some. Then a second watering after the seed is spread will supply enough volume to adequately moisten the soil. It might puddle again, but should soak through to a good "moist but not soggy" degree in some time.

If the soil is very moist to begin with, only a light single watering after the seed is spread will suffice.

If you are growing on trays that have no drainage holes, tilt the tray to pour off any excess water. (AFTER the water has had a chance to soak through if it was a dry soil)

Cover and place in darkness for 2 to 3 days
We cover our trays with clear plastic, like Saran wrap and then have the lights off in the sprout room during the next 3 or 4 days. A single flat or two could be wrapped in this fashion and then placed in a dark location or covered with a dark cloth.

Some growers, who use nursery grow flats, will cover the seed with a grow flat placed upside down over the top. This keeps the seed in relative dark but allows some air flow over the seed. Air flow means that the seed may need to be misted with water once or twice a day. Air flow also increases the chance that airborne mold spores might take hold. This method though, is the most commonly used.
(back to top of page)

Uncover and move to light
After 2 or 3 days, the grass will be between 1/2 to 2 inches tall and stretching the plastic upward. There can be other micro organisms that have grown along with the wheat. We see variance in the height of early developing grass that appears to be from a bacterial, yeast or invisible fungal growth. Some flats (about 1 out of 7 of ours) have an odor, sweetish, that occurs on the flats that seem to be lagging in growth. These will grow, but remain a day or two behind the rest throughout the process.( If anyone has any knowledge of this and a solution, I want you to contact me!)

My first home growing operation was a shelf in near a window. I would place the covered (dark) flat on the bottom shelf,
then as the grass began to grow, I would move it up to the next shelf. In a few days I would have a new flat to place on the bottom and continued to move the taller grass upward. Twice a week I pulled a finished flat off the top shelf. This grew a way lot of grass for 1 person.

The light does not need to be as bright as direct sun. Indirect light near a window is adequate. The grass will grow toward the light, so rotating the trays daily helps if a window is used. Fluorescent tubes work well. There is a lot of speculation about varying amounts of nutrients in relation to different spectrums of artificial light. The variances are in my opinion negligible. It has been shown in one university study that I chanced upon, that a light with more yellow in the spectrum reduced mold growth.

Keep moist and ventilated near, preferrably under 70 deg f. until grass is 7"-10" tall
The amount and frequency of water that you will need will vary in different situations. Some of the factors that dertermine how much and when to water are:

1. The soil's water holding capacity and depth.
2. The tray's drainage or lack of drainage.
3. Volume of air flow, temperature and the humidity.
4. Height of the grass. 10 inch blades will transpire more water in a day than 1 inch blades.

Under our growing conditions, these are some guidelines we follow:

We usually do not water the grass on the first day out into the light if the crop looks well rooted and still moist. This day of drying off the surface of the seed helps kill off some possibly existing molds on the surface. (This dries out the not yet well developed fungal hairs) If the grass is not thoroughly rooted and well on the way to 2 inches tall, it must be lightly watered on this first day.
If the young grass dries out before rooting well, it might never recover completely.

Check the moisture by pushing a finger into the edge of the tray to feel the soil. If it is soggy, skip the watering. Dew drops at the tips of the blade will also usually indicate that you can skip the watering. One side of the tray may be drier than another. Be sure it is all evenly wet before deciding to skip a watering.

Keep the flat away from the wall and situate it to allow good air movement all around.

Harvest
The grass can be harvested at 10 to 14 days when 6 to 10 inches tall.. Some will cut the grass with scissors or a knife, bag and refrigerate it. There is some misconception about the grass losing enzymes when cut. The confusion arises from the fact that the grass JUICE deteriorates very rapidly, within 20 minutes AFTER JUICING. The cut whole grass keeps just as well as any other leafy greens for a few days in the fridge.

We keep the flat that we are juicing from on a table on the front porch. With a sprinkle of water, it keeps growing during the days that we are using it.

When the flat is used up, some will grow the cut grass up to 4 or 5 inches again to get a second harvest. The juice from the second harvest though, only packs about half the punch that the young shoots did.

Have fun growing. Enjoy your chia pet!
(back to top of page)